


photographs like the pages of a storybook

by shslstoryteller (shslundertaker)



Category: Ever After High
Genre: And then more, Canon Compliant, Dancing, F/M, Falling In Love, In Denial, Multi, Mutual Pining, Romance, me not them, will add more tags when stuff actually happens
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-06
Updated: 2018-06-06
Packaged: 2019-05-18 23:55:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14862731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shslundertaker/pseuds/shslstoryteller
Summary: Daring Charming doesn’t mean to fall in love.Neither does Cerise Hood.They do anyways.-----------A series of connected oneshots featuring snapshots of Daring and Cerise's relationship.





	photographs like the pages of a storybook

Daring Charming doesn’t mean to fall in love.

After all, there’s no room for that in his story- and he’s perfectly content with being the prince in Apple’s (beautiful, destined Apple) story as long as he can live free as a bird at Ever After High, and he does. He lets her hang onto his arm as long as she wants to, and in turn he’s allowed to get up to whatever princely (and non-princely, but mostly princely) activities that he desires. Honestly, he’s thankful that his future is so secure. And then all of sudden Raven Queen leads a rebellion, and the world that he knows slowly starts to fall apart.

Apple changes with the school. She becomes more outgoing, more bold, more calculating as she spends every second fighting for her fairy tail that no one is sure will come true. Daring tails along with her every step of the way- after all, its his fated role as a prince. He has to. He believes its right. Yet… he watches his brother fall head over heels in love with Raven Queen (a bad idea, but he loves and supports his brother anyways) and watches his sister slowly and steadily break all the standards set for the youngest Charming sister.

He’s proud, but he’s worried. Thronecoming creeps around faster than he would have liked, and the school- his _world_ \- is still turned upside down. In his little bubble, it’s perfect (ladies swooning, perfect hair, Apple being perfectly princess), but Daring’s not as oblivious as some would like to think. He sees what’s going on out there, and he watches those who teeter on the morality line switch from Royal to Rebel and Rebel to Royal like the changing of day to night, and he worries sometimes that maybe, just maybe, he’s toeing the line himself. That is, until Apple comes in with her songs and promises and he can tell himself that he’s doing the right thing once again.

So, he fakes it. He pretends his actions are pure and fated, not wavering on the edge of muddled morality as they really are. He retreats into his airhead prince persona, spending far more time staring at his reflection in the mirror under the guise of fixing his hair and other princely activities. He throws himself into scaling towers and fighting dragons- and then bookball season comes around and he throws himself into that too. Bookball has always been good for him- just him and his friends, and a good, rough game of bookball with no discussion of anything except sports.

That’s what it was supposed to be, anyways, and then Cerise Hood stormed into his life and somehow his world flipped even _more_ upside down. Damnit.

She sits down with the boys holding a pizza box and asks to try out for their team, something that hasn’t happened in a long, long while. Daring manages to get out an answer (a stupid, stupid answer) that somehow ends up sounding condescending and sexist- and she stomps away with a huff and a pizza box, leaving Daring to wonder what just _happened_?

“She was weird,” Sparrow screeches as he strums a chord on his guitar, and the rest of the bookball team nods, but Daring just rests his chin on his hand and tries to get the image of the red-cloaked girl out of his mind.

He’s still thinking about her as he gets ready for bed, donning his princely pajamas and brushing his hair back from his face. Hopper sits on the bed across the room, and looks up from his tablet, eyeing Daring with his eyebrows raised.

“Geez, Daring, what’s on your mind?”

“Huh?”

“Y’know. You’re not making all the comments on ‘how good you look’.” Hopper mimes quotations with his hands, but Daring strikes a pose, a princely, heroic pose.

“Thank you for noticing, my froggy friend!” Daring grins, and Hopper lets out a long sigh, as he always does when the nickname comes up. “Nonetheless, there’s nothing on my mind. At all. Completely thoughtless!” A deadpan expression from Hopper is enough for Daring to deflate and set his blue and gold hairbrush on the vanity.

“You know Cerise Hood, right?” Hopper nods, and Daring continues. “She… asked to join the bookball team.” When his partly-amphibious roommate doesn’t show any change of emotion, Daring falls back onto his comforter and dramatically groans. “She can’t! She- she’s a damsel!”

“Please don’t tell me you’re doing that.”

“Doing what?”

“The whole ‘Girls are just damsels in distress’ idea. You’ve lived with Darling for… a long time, right? How do you still think they’re helpless? You’ve seen Cerise run.”

“I… yes, I suppose. But that’s not the point here!” Hopper merely sighs at this and returns to his tablet, leaving Daring to mope in his bed until he goes to bed with visions and puzz.es of red cloaks running through his head.

The big bookball game approaches faster than he would have liked, a shiver running down his spine when he thinks of the opponents. Even with the trick that Tiny had taught them, Daring still feels a sense of nervous dread whenever he thinks of the game- though whether it be from the fear of losing or the shame of losing in front of Cerise he can’t really tell. Ever After High seems to be in a tizzy wherever he looks, what with the dance and the voting and the parade and the game, and the red marks crossing off the days of the calendar hung above his head appear more and more far too quickly.

Nonetheless, despite his wishes to freeze time, it’s game day soon enough and Daring finds himself in the locker room donning his gear while staring into the mirror with a small frown on his face. The whole room is filled with the tension, and no one bothers to tell Sparrow to shut up when he strums out a mournful tune on his guitar. The mood follows them onto the field where they look up at the giants and feel their throats run dry (not to mention the fact that the one advantage they had over the giants was gone) and Daring tries to ignore the dark-haired girl smirking in the bleachers with a foam finger that seems almost mocking.

They try. Oh, they try, and nearly get crushed in the process. Morale lowers in the audience, but the team presses on for Ever After High. It’s not very heroic, and Daring wants to hang his head and leave the field- but that would be even more embarassing. As Coach drags him to his feet once again after a blow that sent him sprawling, he looks back onto the bleachers and watches the girl race to get herself a snack before coming back before Daring seemed to recognize that she was gone.

“Coach, I think I know a damsel who can help,” he says, and he ignores the gingerbread man’s disgruntled grumbling in favor of sauntering over to the stands and leaning against the stand. Cerise looks down at him, a small smile on his face. It’s a nice smile- but that’s not the point here. “So… Cerise! If you’re not doing anything…” She cuts him off by poking him gently on the nose with her foam finger.

“Let me get my shoes.” She runs away, leaving Daring to stand there with the most unprincely, dorky smile on his face. This girl would be the end of him one day.

She singlehandedly saved the game. Running faster than a blur, she hurdled and dodged and Daring’s breath caught in his throat every time she ran past him and he saw her, hair pulled back and lips curled into a snarl as sweat beaded her forehead, because she was just… no. Daring can’t go there. He has a story to fulfill. Yeah. For now, he just focuses on the golden trophy. And Cerise. Just a little bit. Whoops.

He goes to talk to her during the Thronecoming dance. A thank you, and an apology- but when he approaches her his throat goes dry and he scratches the back of his neck nervously. Ridiculous- a prince shouldn’t be at a loss for words! It’s strange, and abnormal, but then again it’s Cerise Hood, and she’s _unique_ and unfamiliar, and she’s smiling at him, and it’s the best thing he’s ever seen (sweeter than apple's, brighter than darling's).

“Er… I am sorry that I ever thought you were a ‘damsel in distress’… and you really saved us out there.” Cerise looks off to the side, tucking her hair behind her ear.

“Thanks.”

“So… would you like to dance?” A dry laugh escapes her, and for a second he’s worried that she’s laughing at him until he follows her gaze to the screaming crowd over his shoulder.

“Aren’t there a few others before me?”

“But… well, I… I want to dance with you,” he admits as he takes up her gloved hand. She doesn’t draw away and he takes that as a good thing, staring into her grey eyes as the two of them stand there into a comfortable silence for a few seconds until she drags him onto the dance floor, with a sparkle in her eye as she pulls him into a spin, before dipping him low and smirking down at him.

Daring Charming didn’t mean to fall in love.

Yet… there’s no regrets at all.

He can figure this out later.

For now, there’s just him and Cerise, and that’s good enough.

 

**Author's Note:**

> this is? so self indulgent
> 
> i wrote it instead of studying for finals
> 
> anyways more chapters to come


End file.
